Reluctant Heroes
by Corlath1
Summary: The Dominion of Man is burning, falling around the ears of those who remain loyal to the ideal of a united mankind. But who is left to pick up the pieces in the wake of Kerrigan's invasion? Who will step up and lead this new and free Dominion- and more importantly, who will fight to protect it?
1. Chapter 1

Explosions shook the night, just a few streets over from Tarlton's position. "_They must be huge," _he thought to himself. "_I can still feel the shockwave, even inside my power armor." _

A few feet away, his HUD readouts told him that Kaspersky was still working on getting that Goliath up and running, while Dr. Ashling worked on patching up it's unfortunate pilot. Once again, as he had every ten minutes for the last hour, he put down his rifle and tried their squad radio. At the sight of his movement, Ashling looked up.

"Seriously, Leonard, give it up. Northwest Outpost hasn't responded for almost three hours, and without the Lieutenant's ID codes, we can't access command frequencies. Get some rest, man. God knows we'll need it."

Kaspersky jumped down from the cockpit of the Goliath, the only one of the three not in combat armor.

"I'm with the Doc on this one. Get some sleep. I won't be done with this hunk of junk for at least another hour and a half."

Tarlton raised his helmet's visor, looking at the faces of his squadmates without the safe wall of glass between them.

"I'm fine," he sniffed. "I'm practically swimming in stims- I won't need to sleep for another twelve hours at least. I still say that we leave this twisted hunk of metal to the Zerg and try to push back to the front without it."

"That amount of stim use is unhealthy, as you well know." Ashling replied. "And have you forgotten how we lost the lieutenant? The only reason that we don't have Zerg fliers all over us is that this area of the city is mostly abandoned. The front may only be a mile or two away, but we can't make it on foot."

"At this rate, we may be royally screwed anyway. I can't even get this thing to turn on, much less activate it's missile launchers- which seem to be in pretty bad shape by the way. So get some damn sleep. If we find ourselves with Zerg up to our necks, you need to be able to shoot straight.", the squad's engineer answered petulantly, before turning back to her machine.

Tarlton thought for a moment, before responding to Ashling. "Alright. But if you get the chance, check the radio. I'll have my proximity alarm on, and linked into your suits. If any Zerg come within so much as a mile, I want to be awake for it."

Ashling nodded grimly, and went back to treating the Goliath pilot. The pilot's dogtag was missing, and his left shoulder was ripped to pieces, probably from the same Zerg attack that had shredded his walker's canopy. He was still alive, but unconscious. Tarlton sat back down, and closed the visor on his helmet, shutting down the dozens of bright lights that made up his HUD for a few moments of precious sleep. It had been a long day. The Dominion was losing, and losing badly. That much was clear, though practically everything else was chaos. When the Zerg had first hit Augustgrad, most of the Marines were confident, somehow, that the Swarm could be repulsed. Out of the whole of his unit, only Tarlton had ever faced down the Zerg before- he knew exactly what they were in for, and unless the Emperor had some sort of great plan up his sleeve, this city was going to become the tombstone of the entire Dominion marine corps. After almost a day of fierce fighting, the Zerg had managed to destroy their ground-to-space defenses, and push the military back into the city of Augustgrad itself. Tarlton's unit had been split up after some sort of huge Zerg worm burst from the ground beneath them, and started spitting out hundreds of fanged and clawed monstrosities. For a few hours, chaotic reports filed in from different squad leaders, trying to reunite the unit at Northwest Outpost, but none had been heard in an amount of time that was almost worrisome. From the sounds of the explosions, the Swarm had already moved past Northwest Outpost, and the fate of any squads that had managed to make it there could only be imagined. Any straggler squads were probably picked off by packs of Hydralisks or Zerg fliers before they made it to safety. The more Tarlton thought about it, the more likely it became that the three soldiers next to him were all that remained of their unit- and one of those wasn't doing so good. Right before he drifted off to sleep, he allowed himself an uncharacteristic dose of pity for the pilot. Looking at the wound, he was almost certainly going to lose his arm.


	2. Chapter 2

Tarlton woke up with a start to the image of Kaspersky, still out of her SCV suit, rapping his helmet with a wrench.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. You sure do sleep heavy for a Marine."

Tarlton groaned, and sat up. "How long was I out? Is it morning already?"

"About four hours, and you would've been out for longer than that if I hadn't woken you. The Doc got something on the radio- he asked for me to get you."

The huge power armored marine stretched inside his suit, and got up. Sure enough, Ashling was hunched over by the radio, squawking into it in his reserved, polite way. He looked around a moment, and noticed that the Goliath pilot was propped up on Kaspersky's SCV- which had all the panels torn off, with bits of wire hanging out of what looked like suspiciously empty movement servos.

"My god. What'd you do to your suit?"

"Oh, yeah. That. Seems the Goliath's a bit more busted up than I thought. I'm having to cannibalize the old girl to get that hunk of metal moving again. Whatever it takes, I guess."

Tarlton sighed, and closed his helmet visor. They were wasting too much time- they were needed at the front.

Ashling grabbed the radio, and brought it over.

"This message started broadcasting about fifteen minutes ago. I still can't get command- I think something's blocking targeted frequencies."

Tarlton grabbed the radio cord with a huge, gauntleted hand, and plugged the feed into his suit's audio jack. After a brief crackle, the cool, emotionless voice of an AI adjutant started reverberating through his helmet.

"This message was recorded at 6:34, Augustgrad Outpost. All remaining Dominion units in the Northwestern Corridor are to rescind all other priorities and rendezvous with the Sons of Korhal at Outpost West to prepare for a counter-offensive. Message repeat: all units, rendezvous at Outpost West. Do not detour through Outpost Northwest- that position has been compromised. This message was recorded at 6:34, Augustgrad…"

Tarlton unplugged the feed from his suit, and closed his eyes for a moment. A lot of his friends had been stationed at Northwest. He had already known that they were dead- this just confirmed his fears.

"You hear this, Kapersky?" he asked after a moment.

"No, not really. What's going on?"

"We have new orders. We're moving out in an hour. I want that walker up and moving by then."

"The hell? Do you want this thing to break down in the middle of a fight, or what?"

"Not really. But we're moving, Goliath or no, so do what you can. Doctor, how are our medical supplies holding up?"

"I have most of what I need, but we're running low on antibiotics- the pilot's arm keeps trying to necrotize."

"Is he good to travel?"

"Honestly? No. But he doesn't have much of a choice, now does he?"

"No." Tarlton exhaled and closed his eyes, imagining the horrors that he was about the plunge back into. "He doesn't. We're moving out in an hour. The Emperor needs us, and I won't have it said that our squad hid while our brothers died. Be ready."

The marine sergeant picked up his rifle, and slapped a new clip into his magazine, checking for jams and foreign particles just like his instructors had taught him. He was going back into battle- what he had pledged to do when he had donned the uniform of the Dominion Marine Corps. More people were going to die, maybe even him this time, but he managed to remain calm. He believed in what they were fighting for- a united mankind. In this fight, sides were pretty clear. Mankind had to fight the Swarm, or die. That was all that existed. In Tarlton's mind, life was simple. And when life was simple, life was good.


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of Kapersky's Goliath feet reverberated across the deserted streets. It was eerily silent, the only sound being the occasional explosion in the distance. They came across dead groups of Marines every once in a while- usually there was nothing to be done with them but take their dog tags, and mark their locations for burial. Tarlton recognized too many of the names. They were looking at what was left of their unit. However, Tarlton noted with a spark of pride, the 114th Dominion Infantry hadn't gone out without a fight- scattered around the remains of each squad were dozens of zerg organisms, blown to shreds by gauss rifle fire. These they avoided- Tarlton knew from experience that just because zerg looked dead, that didn't mean they'd stay that way. He kept his rifle shouldered- if the zerg had been here before, it was only a matter of time before they ran into them. Suddenly, the audio feed in his helmet lit up, and informed him that a link had been established with Ashling.

"I've got two more over here- a James Morrison and Scarlett Letterman. Looks like they got caught out in the open and got ripped up by a couple of Hydralisks. Recognize either of those names?"

"Nope. Probably two of the new transfers from the Tyrador unit. Too bad- they were good fighters."

"Unfortunately, I think that describes a lot of the dead today. Marking their position on GPS. Let's hope they get proper burial after all this is over."

Tarlton turned, and watched while the doctor turned on their suit transceivers. He had the Goliath pilot lashed with some ropes over the shoulder of his armor- so far the stiches were holding up on his wounds, but he very well might not make it to Outpost West.

"Hey boys!" Kapersky's voice squawked into the feed. "Hurry up! If we move any slower, there might not be any outpost to get to!"

"Calm down, Kapersky." Tarlton responded. "We just need to mark these folks. They deserve that much."

Suddenly, the proximity alarm in his HUD lit up- four red dots, representing unidentified flyers, moving towards them at high speed.

"Everybody, stop! I'm tracking four bogies, moving in on our position! Kapersky, your Goliath getting this?"

"No, I don't see anything, but the sensor platforms on this thing are pretty busted up… ok, there, I see them. Their heat signatures match the reported profiles for Mutalisks. Trying to get a missile lock."

Ashling suddenly looked up from the corpses with a start, and drew his sidearm.

"I'm getting into cover. I'll try to find a place to put down the patient- he really doesn't need to be jostled around this much."

Tarlton blinked twice at the audio feed, signaling affirmation, and clicked the safety off his Gauss rifle. This was exactly what he had been afraid of- this is how the Lieutenant had died, during that first, terrible night when the Swarm had broken the blockade. He crouched behind an abandoned car, and waited in silence, watching as the targets grew ever closer in his helmet plot. After a moment of waiting, he got his first look at his foes- sure enough, four mutalisks that screamed over the edge of the building at the edge of the street.

Tarlton looked around for a possible route of escape, and then blinked into his audio feed, linking the squad into a silent, private comm link.

"You got a lock Kapersky?"

"Yup. Missiles primed."

"Take down the lead Muta, and then lay down coverfire. That department store on this end of this street looks sturdy enough- we can hole up in there, where the mutas can't follow us. Try to keep the zerg off our backs until I can get Ashling in there with his patient, and then I'll come back for you. Got it?"

"I'm not too hyped about being the bait, but whatever. Let kick some ass!"

After a moment of simply watching the flock of zerg fliers bear down on them, his visor automatically dimmed as a missile screamed out of one of the Goliath's launchers. It made a beeline straight for the lead mutalisk, and detonated on contact, severing its left wing from its body, and sending it spiraling down to the earth in a spray of blood and charred flesh. It landed on the roof of the building next to the department store- some sort of game shop, by the looks of things.

Tarlton hissed in a breath of satisfaction, and began to signal Ashling to run, when a distress alarm from Kapersky's status feed caught his attention. He tapped into Kapersky's audio, about to ask what was the matter, when a virtual wall of obscenities greeted him.

"Goddamnit, you absolute piece of junk! I ripped up my suit- my Jane- to fix you, and this is how you repay me? Damn, damn damn!"

Each obscenity was punctuated with a bang. It sounded like she was literally beating the controls with her fists.

"Kapersky! I'm reading a malfunction. What's going on in there?"

After a deep, hissing breath, the engineer answered.

"One of the missile tubes jammed up. When I tried to fire, it ripped up some of the servos. I'm lucky the damn thing didn't explode on me."

"Are you still in operating condition?"

"I can still shoot, if that's what you're asking, but who knows when the movement joints might fail. Plus, if there's a leak in the vespene transfer coupling, I'm sitting on a time bomb."

Ashling's voice cut in on the chatter.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have to get moving now! My patient is totally unprotected, and even a glancing blow from a mutalisk's glaive worm will kill him."

Tarlton thought for a moment, and sighed. This was not going as smoothly as he had hoped.

"Ok. We're sticking with the plan. Kapersky, if you think yourself to be in danger, eject, and make a beeline for the building. Until then, hold them off the best you can."

"Can do, sir!"

Tarlton signaled for Ashling to move, and raised his rifle while coming out of cover.. The mutalisks were nearly within the range of their glaive worms- he had seen what those could to men, even men in power armor. His visor lit up with the multicolored panorama of target acquisition and aim-assist servo management, which he navigated with an expert series of blinks, selecting the mutalisk to the far left, and opened fire. A rain of hot lead poured out of his gauss rifle's muzzle, spraying in the spread pattern that he had been trained was the most effective against aerial opponents. A few rounds hit their mark, as was evidenced by the small fountains of blood that erupted from the creature's flanks, but none struck the all important wings, and the monster kept right on flying. After he had squeezed off a few bursts, the mutalisks began to return fire, as the orifices on the end of their tails began spitting out the hot globules of acid which could eat straight through a marine's armor. Several impacted the car behind him, and he could hear the metal his as the acid ate through the chassis. He ran forward and slid behind a truck, hoping that it's thicker frame could withstand a few hits. On the audio link he heard a scream, and saw Ashling's status feed light up red, representing a suit breach.

"Ashling! Report!"

"I'm fine. Acid hit my chestplate and knocked me over when I tried to run. Nasty hole in my armor, but I'm not bleeding."

A series of thuds reported from the other side of the truck Tarlton was behind, and he saw an acid globule fly straight over his head, burying into the concrete about four feet away. Another missile screamed out of Kapersky's sole functioning missile launcher, but missed it's target by several feet. The mutalisks flew over his head, and started to fly back around to make another pass. He imagined that he could hear the cries of the horrid, batlike creatures above him as they lusted for his blood.

"Ashling! Before they come around again! Move it! Kapersky and I will cover you."

"Got it… moving…. Now!"

Tarlton saw Ashling's white armored form leap over a car across a car across the street, pushing his movement servos to the limit, and achieving on foot a speed faster than any street car. After he had made sure that the doctor was about half the distance to the safety of the department store, Tarlton turned his attention back to the nightmarish horrors bearing back down on him.

"Kapersky, how are you on missiles?"

"Just one left, sarge."

"Target the one to the right, and then open up on the middle one with your cannons. Keep em' off Ashling!"

An affirmative light blinked next to Kapersky's status bar on his HUD, and a moment later a third rocket sped towards its' target. The rocket made an arc through the air, and hit its' target on its center body mass. The insectiod zerg flyer disappeared, and was replaced by a spray of red gore, with blobs of green where it's sacks of acid broke. Tarlton aimed his rifle carefully, and opened up on the lead mutalisk. A moment later, he saw Ashling make it to safety out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't going to lose anyone else today.


End file.
